ICBC: Pudding

Oh my. Was my last post really in July? Eeep. I knew I was slacking but didn't realize it was this bad. Sorry my legions of fans.

My grand return to the ICBC was pudding. But I think I cheated on this one. You see, as I went through the various websites searching for "pudding recipes," I kept seeing results for bread pudding. Bread pudding, bread pudding - it intrigued me. I had only had the dessert once, at Crackers & Co. in Mesa (please make that your breakfast stop if you're in the area, it's on Country Club, just southwest of the US-60) and it was amazing. So I finally couldn't resist and fudged on the secret ingredient a bit. Bread pudding it is.

ICBC: Mustard and Eggs

Nope, not as one challenge but two separate weeks (always behind, sigh).


Mustard!
I love the idea of slow cooker recipes because you can come home and have dinner ready for you. Unfortunately that means that you have to do all the preparation in the morning, when you're feeling just as tired. So it took me a while to finally get my act together and make this recipe. I finally realized why so many recipes had "make ahead" instructions, as it helped a lot to do some of the chopping and prepping the night before. Ah, so that's how people pull off those elaborate dinners. (Total tangent: we were watching some NYC real estate reality show on HGTV or the like, and they were showing a Manhattan apartment with TWO kitchens. The saddest part is that the agent was like, "One is downstairs for the cooks' prep work and the upstairs one is where the caterer can stage your dinner parties." Two kitchens and the owners will never set foot in either! Ultimately, that house, which had its own indoor pool, was listed for $25 million!)

I tackled Barbecue Pork Shoulder from Epicurious, because, simply, it sounded tasty and I had some Dijon that needed to get used. Actually, this was a great recipe for using up those condiments that you buy for one recipe and then sit in the fridge door, mocking you. I couldn't find pork shoulder anywhere in the meat case at the grocery store, so I settled on pork roast. It came out just as tasty! I also put this over rice since I forgot to get rolls, and it worked pretty well. Spicy, but tasty. It didn't taste like BBQ in the finger-lickin' sense, but still good.

Eggs!
For some reason, when the ingredient is especially simple, it's tempting to see how far you can take it. I found out about the ingredient while at La Fuente, so naturally was inspired to try flan. But not only was I going to make flan, I was going to make homemade dulche de leche. I'm sorry, but the stuff that passes for dulce de leche in all the trendy desserts that are now using it just tastes like caramel sauce.

This was all quite an adventure. First, dulce de leche is shockingly simple but takes four hours! You take a can of sweetened condensed milk, pop two holes in the top, and submerge it up to an inch from the top in simmering water. Easy enough, except that you have to keep an eye on it for those four hours, as the water level gets low and demands your attention.

The flan also seemed deceptively simple, but getting sugar to liquefy was so frustrating. First of all, the recipe made it seem like you heated it on low, stirred for a bit and there you had it - beautiful liquid sugar. But after 30 minutes of stirring and staring... nothing. I then went online to find out what I was doing wrong, and there I met pages after pages of warning about how the slightest error in temperature and time would leave you with a blackened solid ball of pure sadness. So now I was freaked out and bumping the temperature up by microdegrees (if there is such a thing). Once it finally started melting, I freaked out and took it off the stove before it was totally liquid. Instantly it hardened into a sticky mass (oh, I've just discovered how they make hard candy). My first instinct was to microwave it, and amazingly, it softened. This was all just to make the sweet sauce that eventually becomes the top of the flan. The flan itself was quick and easy and after all the time and stress, it came out quite tasty. And the dulce de leche? Divine. Try it!

Hour 1 of 4.

Decorative sugar arts (aka, still waiting...).

Finally! Unfortunately I took it off the stove shortly after this, which was too soon.

You know, it kinda looks like a pie. Not pretty, but really tasty.

Barbecue Pork Shoulder

From Epicurious.com

• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons hot chile powder
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco), or to taste
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped (with seeds)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
• 3 strips bacon, chopped
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes including juice
• 1 bay leaf

• Special equipment: Slow cooker

• Accompaniment: 8 to 10 sandwich rolls

In small bowl, whisk together sugar, tomato paste, mustard, vinegar, chile powder, hot pepper sauce, and salt. Set aside.

In heavy, medium skillet over moderately high heat, heat oil until hot but not smoking. Add onion, pepper, jalapeño, and garlic, and sauté until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Scrape into slow cooker.

Add pork cubes, bacon, tomatoes and their juices, and bay leaf and stir to combine. Pour sauce over mixture. Cover and cook on low until meat is very tender, 8 to 10 hours. Remove bay leaf and use fork to break up meat before serving on rolls.

Flan

From AllRecipes.com

• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely.
5. To serve, carefully invert on serving plate with edges when completely cool

Dulce de Leche

The video near the bottom of this site is super helpful: www.wikihow.com/Make-Dulce-De-Leche

High five to Smitten Kitchen!

This isn't an ICBC recipe, but I had to share, because this was absolutely fabulous: spring asparagus pancetta hash from Smitten Kitchen. It took a bit of prep work (cubing the potatos, chopping the onions, etc) but it was just amazing. I made a lovely over-easy egg thanks to Carrie pointing me towards the "steaming" technique and it was all devine. I had never had panchetta before and was kind of wary... I'm not a big fan of processed meats and I usually veer towards meat-free recipes, but I loved the salty cubes. It was a bit like ready-to-go pork chop meat and I'd like to try and use it again. It took a while to find, but it was with the lunch meats and sasagues at Trader Joe's.

I guess the point of all of this is to share a recipe that just made my day and to say "make it!"

I also just noticed that Smitten Kitchen sells prints of her lovely photos. I'm so tempted to redecorate our kitchen with her prints. Sorry Beatles poster?

A barrage of ICBC recipes

One of my fellow ICBC bloggers mentioned that the problem with getting behind on the challenge is that you lose track of the recipes you've made. I can't quite remember what I've created, and some of my photos are missing. So the recap may be a bit patchy.


Here we go (full recipes at the end):


Spinach!

I have a Pillsbury calendar that I got for free, and each month it features a large, glossy photo of a delicious food item. Even though most are desserts (it is a company famous for its biscuits and cookies in a tube) May featured a lovely spinach pizza and so I took it as a sign when spinach popped up as an ingredient. I had no idea Pillsbury made pizza dough in a tube, but there you go. I ultimately didn't use the Pillsbury recipe, and instead used one from Epicurious because I loved the idea of roasted garlic. Not only is it tasty, but it's weirdly entertaining to pop the bulbs of the garlic after its been roasted. Of course, my hands smelled liked garlic for days afterward. Maybe it warded off Twilight vampires?

 
Avacados!

Ok, I'll admit it. When my turn came to choose the ingredient again, I chose avacados just so I could have the excuse to try my hand at homemade guacamole. I don't know why I thought I didn't like this fabulous green goo, but once I ventured a taste of someone else's guac, I realized the error of my ways. This stuff is so good! (Only when made fresh, though.) There are thousands of guac recipes available, and I wasn't too picky in selecting mine - I just went with one with high ratings off of AllRecipes. It was a basic avacado, tomato, onion, cilantro version but it was tasty. I didn't chop the onions fine enough, though, and so certain bites had quite the onion surprise. I'm not totally thrilled with the results and want to mess around with some more recipes. Recommendations welcome!

(I don't have a picture because I didn't know that guacamole went brown so quickly.)

Strawberries!

What a tasty, summer-appropriate choice! Finally, berries are cheap and plentiful at the store, and I no longer have to resist the temptation to pick up $4 boxes of sad little fruits. I tried to find a non-dessert option but fell into something sweet when I saw the picture of strawberry shortcakes on the Betty Crocker Ipad app. (Yes, we have a new, shiny addition to our family... love, love, love it. This is the future of computers and also eReaders I think.) This led to my first experience using Bisquick and, well, yep, it's quite quick! I've made homemade biscuits before, especially since they don't require eggs and can be a great empty-fridge Sunday morning breakfast treat. But these are so dang easy. And look at these gorgeous pictures! I hate the word "yum" for some reason, but it strangely fits for this. And I now have something impressive to take to get-togethers. Well... I mean... if I was going to lots of get-togethers.

Roasted Garlic, Spinach, and Tomato Pizza

from Epicurious.

• 1 whole head garlic
• 3 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 package (10 oz) refrigerated pizza dough, such as Pillsbury Refrigerated Pizza Crust
• 2 cups chopped baby spinach leaves
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 3/4 cup halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 tbsp pine nuts
• Fresh basil leaves

Roast the garlic: Slice 1/2 inch off the top of the garlic head and place cut side up on foil. Drizzle with 1 tsp oil and sprinkle with water. Wrap in foil and bake at 350°F for 50 minutes. When cooled slightly, squeeze roasted garlic out of the skins. To grill: Heat Foreman's Grilling Machine to the highest setting or make a medium-hot fire on a gas or charcoal grill. Roll out pizza dough on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Cut dough in half; shape into two 10-inch square pizzas. Do not make a rim. Grill dough on one side until grill marks show, about 3 minutes. Remove from grill. Place dough, grilled side up, on a cutting board. Brush with remaining 2 tsp oil. Spread with roasted garlic; season with salt and pepper. Add spinach, cheeses, tomatoes, and pine nuts. Return to grill and cook for 3 minutes, or until cheese melts and crust is cooked through. Garnish with basil; cut pizzas in half to serve. To bake: Heat oven to 475°F. On a lightly greased baking sheet, form dough into a large pizza; arrange toppings. Bake 10 minutes or until crust browns. Remove from oven; garnish with basil; cut into fourths to serve.

Guacamole

From AllRecipes.com

• 3 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)

In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. Stir in cayenne pepper. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately. 

Strawberries Shortcakes 
From Betty Crocker

(I don't know why, but the use of the plural version of "strawberry" in the title is bothering me.)

1	quart (4 cups) strawberries, sliced
1/4	cup sugar
2 1/3	cups Original Bisquick® mix
1/2	cup milk
3	tablespoons sugar
3	tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/2	cup whipping cream

1.	Heat oven to 425°F. In large bowl, mix strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside.
2.	In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, milk, 3 tablespoons sugar and the butter until soft dough forms. On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by 6 spoonfuls.
3.	Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.
4.	Split warm shortcakes; fill and top with strawberries and whipped cream.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Heat oven to 450°F. Decrease sugar in shortcakes to 1 tablespoon.

(More to come, including the mustard, egg, and lemon challenges. But I need to make dinner now!)

Getting moving

So I'm trying to "get healthy," though it's hard when all I want to do when I get home from work is sit on the couch and blink. I don't know why work is so exhausting, it's not like I'm working those ancient typesetting machines... I guess it's just mental exertion. I can't get myself to start running and for some reason even the workout center in our complex is too far away. I like to think my answer lies in DDR for Wii, but I don't think my downstairs neighbors would be too fond of that.

Lately, Brian and I have been taking walks at a park near our apartment. It's a nice park, but the best part is that it's home to a large colony of ground squirrels. If you wander around during the afternoon, you can see them shuffling around, standing ("aww, he thinks he's people"), and running away from you in fear.

 Love me. Feed me corn nuts.

One particular squirrel has a pretty sweet home in a dirt island and we've dubbed him Fatty, due to his particularly corpulent waddle. He's pretty fearless and enjoys food, especially the corn nuts we bring him. One day we were tossing him corn nuts when another ground squirrel popped up and started battling Fatty over the precious commodity. To cheer our favorite ground squirrel on, I shouted, "Hey, this is Fatty territory!"

Right as I was yelling, a guy rode past me on a bike and gave me a shocked and then withering look.

Oops... I mean... I didn't mean... aw, nevermind.

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Week ... FAIL

I'm a failed ICBCer... I'm sorry. The saddest thing is that I've participated in a number of the challenges and just haven't gotten the entries up into blogging land. You ever have one of those times where you wake up and suddenly a couple months have disappeared? Yeah, that's how it feels right now. Oh my, and I actually was having nightmares out of guilt from not posting! I'm serious, I kept dreaming that I signed up for something and then forgot about it and then thugs came to rough me up for not paying/showing up. Kind of a variation of those dreams where you realize that today is finals and you never actually went to class all semester.

The silly thing is that I really enjoy the cooking fun. A number of the recipes I've tried have made it into my regular dinner rotation (with the turnip Yukon gold mashed potatoes making the top of that list). So I am vowing to get back in the game!

Right now I'll just do an abbreviated post with two of the recipes that I can remember right now. (The full recipes are listed at the end of this post.) The first was for gluten-free challenge. I decided to make homemade tomato soup, because I love tomato soup but haven't been happy with the brands I've been trying lately (Trader Joe's - what a huge disappointment from a store I normally love). I tried out a Food Network recipe because it involved caramelizing onions, and lately I've wanted to caramel everything. Unfortunately, it was still a bit of a disappointment because it tasted more like tomato sauce instead of tomato soup. Also, I didn't have an immersion blender, which sounds like something that would not get used often, so I substituted a potato masher. Yeah. It worked ok, though! Ultimately, I ended up straining the liquid out of the remaining soup and put it over spaghetti the next day for lunch.

 The other challenge I have available is garlic. Woo hoo, I love garlic. I went for an option off the gorgeous cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen. Wow, the pictures alone on the site will make you want to race into the kitchen and whip up something homey. I was intrigued by her post about the shakshuka, a dish from Israel. I mean, I love tomato sauce, I love eggs. Why not be bold and try them together? This was pretty fun to make, especially in trying to get the eggs to plop in without breaking the yolks. I served it with naan, but I think another bread-ish thing would have been better... I'm just not sure yet. Oooh, maybe toasted French bread? Anyway, it was tasty but it didn't quite hit the mark. Brian and I were fighting over the parts with the eggs, so I would recommend throwing at least one more in.

In non-cooking news, life has been busy with its usual ups and downs. We have a couple weddings on the horizon as well as our "official" honeymoon to New York City at the beginning of July. After we get back, we're going to try to move forward on getting a retired racing greyhound. We almost bought a bed at Petsmart but I didn't think they were cute enough (and it's going to have to be a very big bed).

Totally not related, but may I just say how much I love that we are no longer restricted to watching TV on the network's schedules. Brian and I usually watch a show or two at dinnertime and we have a huge rotation going on. Our options currently include: The Office, 30 Rock, Community, Infomania (seriously, check this one out, especially if you like The Soup), King of the Hill, Futurama, House, Real Life, and the terrible guilty pleasure 16 & Pregnant. On Mondays and Tuesdays, when Brian watches 24 and Lost, I'm trying to catch up on Mad Men. It's weird because my family was never big on TV, except for Saturday morning cartoons and TGIF. But now both my parents and I have gotten into "our shows." Are we getting old?

Ehem, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go try out the mid-term Brian has put together for the 20th century American history class he's teaching. Oh no, I'm unprepared!

Tomato Soup 

From FoodNetwork.com 

Ingredients

• 1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, to taste, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add basil and cream, if using. Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth.

Shakshuka

From Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup olive oil

5 Anaheim chiles or 3 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped (I was nervous and only used 2 Anaheims; I would go for 3 or 4 next time for a more moderate but still gentle kick)

1 small yellow onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained

Kosher salt, to taste

6 eggs

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

Warm pitas, for serving

Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping.

(As always, the formatting on blogger is driving me crazy. Sorry for the inconsistencies in the text!)

ICBC Week 14 (I think)

The background: It was my turn again to pick the secret ingredient! I couldn't resist picking shallots because they're my new favorite discovery. Sweeter than onions and easier to cut (no crying!) they seem to be a great garnish for soups, pastas, and even baked potatoes. I loves me my pasta, so I decided to try out a pasta that didn't rely on red sauce.

The prep: Shallots are super easy to find in the grocery stores, they're usually by the garlic. I halved the recipe because, boy, that's a lot of shallots and garlic.

The main event: I don't think I've ever cooked anything on the stove for an hour, especially having to keep an eye on it. But the long cooking time really made for deliciously caramelized veggies, so I just read a book and popped up to check on the whole thing periodically. I would err towards lower heat, because it's easy to over-brown everything at the beginning. Everything went surprisingly well, though there weren't many of the "brown bits" that the recipes calls for retrieving.

The wrap-up: I didn't have basil on hand (and that's why I went out an bought a fresh basil plant!) so I had to miss out on that taste. I also substituted shaved Parmesan for the Parm-Reggiano mix.

The final score: I loved it, and I want to caramelize everything now. I did have to be generous with the cheese, though, to really add enough umph to this recipe. So maybe that's why I loved it. Let's say 5 out of 6 for taste, 6 out of 6 for prep. Brian thought it was ok. I've added this into my lunch-for-work rotation, making a modified version by sauteing the garlic and shallots in olive oil with salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar, until brown (about 5 min or less).

The recipe:

Caramelized Garlic and Shallot Pasta

(I swear I saw this on the recipes section of Yahoo!, but in searching for it, it turns out it's from The Martha Steward Living Cookbook. If you want another online version of the recipe, try this.) 

- serves 6 -

 

Ingredients

 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 pounds (about 15 medium) shallots, sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch rings

1 cup peeled garlic cloves (about 3 heads), large cloves halved lengthwise

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt, plus more for water

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups homemade chicken stock or low-sodium store-bought chicken broth, skimmed of fat

1 pound farfalle, rigatoni, or cavatelli

Fresh basil leaves, for garnish

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for garnish

 

Procedure

 

1. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium­low heat. Add the shallots and garlic cloves, stirring to coat. Sprinkle with the sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and the pepper, and stir to combine. Cook until very soft and golden, about 1 hour, adding water 2 table­spoons at a time if the pan seems dry.

2. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the garlic and shallots to a bowl, and set aside. Add the chicken stock, and bring to a boil, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the pan. Cook, stir­ring occasionally, until the mixture is reduced by one-quarter, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, return the garlic and shallots to the pan, and keep warm while cooking the pasta.

3. Cover a large pot of salted water, and bring to a boil. Drop the pasta into the boiling water; stir to keep pasta from sticking. Cook until al dente; drain and return to saucepan. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, re­served garlic and shallots, and sauce. Cut basil leaves into thin strips. Divide pasta and sauce among six serving bowls; garnish with the basil and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. Serve hot.

Maybe I should have bedazzled my boot

Last year I messed up my foot (after my first try at a spinning class, sigh). Over-compensating for plantar fasciitis led to the start of a stress fracture in one of my toes. So my doctor stuck me in an air cast for a month. It worked great, I felt better, and so on, but boy was it big and kinda ugly:

That blue thing pumps air into the cast. It's like wearing those Nike pump shoes from the early 90s.
 

So the question is, why would anyone pay for a fashion floral version?

From FreePeople.com. You too can look orthopedic for just under $300!

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Week ... ummm

Bad blogger! Bad, bad!

Ok, so I got a bit busy. And got way behind. Even though I completed at least three challenges. We had a big event last weekend (can't believe it has been a week since the wedding!) and with all the prep and fun, I got a bit distracted. And sometimes lazy.

So, here's the updates on the the three challenges I did complete. I'm not going to give them the usual royal treatment but a quick rundown. (Recipes will appear at the end of this post.)

Challenge: Alcohol


Now that it's nice out, we're stopping by the farmer's market a few miles down the street. So I decided to make a tomato sauce using red wine. I am so not a red drinker, so when the recipe called for a dry wine, I had no idea and just pulled a bottle of Two Buck Chuck Cabernet. Turns out that it's a great cooking wine. I have this book called, appropriately, The Complete Book of Pasta and the recipes look amazing, but they are grocery lists of ingredients. Luckily, I had a lot on hand and it turned out pretty tasty. As Brian described it, "it tastes classy." If you like red wine, I would totally recommend trying this out. I would go easier on the wine, though, it was pretty runny.


The mess I made while cooking... not a big surprise.


The sauce finishing up on the stove.

Challenge: Turnips

Ok, so I was getting turnips confused with radishes. I went to the store expecting to buy those pretty red and green veggies and instead had to leave with an ugly, purple bulb. Who was that first person who went, "gee, I think I'll eat this thing?" So weird. I decided to go for a recipe that sounded totally strange, mashed potatoes and turnips with pear sauce. This was another recipe from Epicurious, which is fast becoming a favorite recipe site. Wow, this was a surprisingly wonderful dish! The turnips added a rich flavor, they mashed like potatoes but gave the whole thing an "umph." Try it! I kept the pear sauce as a side, and I could take it or leave it. It did work with the potatoes, but you have to like that sweet and salty mix. The pear sauce was tasty on its own, though, perhaps over ice cream some time? I guess I also took care of the pear challenge that was taking place this week!


Doesn't this look a bit like a quail?

See?

The tasty potatoes! And more mess.

Challenge: Peanut butter

Ok, embarrassing admission. I was lacking anything to take as a snack at work one week (I have to have a mid-day snack or I will eat my lunch at like 9 a.m.) so I took a jar of reduced fat Skippy. I then had a spoonful of straight up peanut butter as a snack for a week. So, I love peanut butter. I was going to stick to my "no baking" rule, but then a recipe for homemade Tagalongs sifted through my Google Reader (by the way, I had over 1,000 postings in my reader after just four days of not checking it, yikes). Tagalongs used to by my favorite Girl Scout cookie (now it's Samoas) and in honor of those years going door-to-door and working the cookie booth outside of Bashas, I decided to make the cookies. They were so tasty but such a mess to make. Plus, I though parchment paper = wax paper and managed to set the smoke detectors in our apartment. That was fun. My big recommendation would be to try to spread the peanut butter instead of leaving it in a ball in the center of the cookie, and to make sure that your dipping chocolate is deep. Despite the mess and excitement, they were (gasp, shall I say it??) better than the Girl Scout version.

Let's see if I can still do the oath: "On my honor, I will try, to serve God and my country. To help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout law."

Still got it!

I'll try to add my thoughts on gettin' married a little later. Until then, happy cooking!

Classic tomato sauce:

From The Complete Book of Pasta  edited by Jeni Wright

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 T tomato paste

1 t paprika

2 cans chopped tomatoes drained (I used fresh tomatoes)

pinch of dired oregano

1 1/4 c. dry red wine

large pinch of superfine sugar (should be read as "supafiiiiiiine")

12 oz. fresh or dried curly lasagna sheets (I used plain ol' spaghetti)

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese shavings

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan and fry the onion for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened but not brown. Add the tomato paste and paprika and cook for a further 3 minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes, oregano, wine and sugar to the pan and season the mixture to taste, then bring to a boil.

3. Simmer for 20 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened, stirring occasionally.

4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of boiling, salted water accoring to the instructions on the package. Drain thoroughly and turn into a large serving dish. Pour over the sauce and toss to coat. Serve sprinkled with the Parmesan cheese.

 

Potatoes:
From Epicurious.com

(I halved this recipe and it was plenty for 2 - 4 people. Also, a blender works just as well as a food processor in preparing the turnips.)

Ingredients
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
8 Bosc pears, peeled, quartered, cored
5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 pounds white turnips, peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, room temperature

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine honey, lemon juice, and melted butter in large bowl. Add pears; toss to coat. Arrange pears in single layer on large rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast pears 30 minutes. Turn pears to coat with juices and roast until very tender, about 35 minutes longer. Transfer pears and caramelized liquids to food processor; blend until smooth. (Pear puree can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
• Cook potatoes and turnips in separate large pots of generously salted water until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain well. Transfer turnips to processor; puree until smooth. Mash potatoes with room-temperature butter in large bowl until smooth. Stir in pureed turnips. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm in microwave before continuing.)
• Rewarm pear puree. Place potato-turnip mixture in large serving bowl. Swirl in pear puree and serve.

Tagalongs:

From Love & Olive Oil

Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
Filling
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (natural or regular)
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
generous pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Coating
about 8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
2 oz cocoa butter OR 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk. The dough should come together into a soft ball.
• Take a tablespoon full of dough and flatten it into a disc about 1/4-inch thick. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. Cookies will not spread too much, so you can arrange them fairly closely together.
• Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes, until bottoms and the edges are lightly browned and cookies are set.
• Immediately after removing cookies from the oven, use your thumb or a small spoon to make a depression in the center of each cookie. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make filling, whisk together peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt and vanilla in a small microwave-safe bowl. When the mixture has come together, heat it in the microwave (in short intervals, stirring frequently), until it is soft. Working carefully with the warm filling, transfer it to a pastry bag (or plastic bag with the tip cut off) and pipe a generous dome of the filling into each cookie’s “thumbprint”.
• Chill filled cookies for 20-30 minutes, or until the peanut butter is firm.
• Melt the chocolate and cocoa butter in a small, heat-resistant bowl placed over a small saucepan filled with simmering (not boiling) water.
• Dip chilled cookies into chocolate, let excess drip off, and place on a sheet of parchment paper to set.

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Weeks 5 and 9

Nope, not a typo. I picked up a belated ICBC this week, in addition to my (slightly-cheating, and slightly-belated-as-well) recipe for last week's challenge. On one night I made two, count them, two recipes. Well, kind of.

Week 5 was mushrooms and Week 9 was bacon. (Can anyone say bacon without saying in that low "bay-cun" voice? Um, sure... you know what I mean, right?). So I made stuffed mushrooms and BLTs.

The background: I had been wanting to try stuffed mushrooms, as I have recently discovered that, hey, I do like mushrooms. This was all thanks to fabulous stuff mushrooms that my bookclub buddy brought to one meeting. Yes. Bookclub. And bacon was on sale, which means a lot if you're a budgeting bacon buyer (alliteration - nothin' but net). I've made BLTs before (cheater) but I made my challenge to see if I could cook large amounts of bacon in the microwave.

The prep: For the mushrooms, I had to pop the stems off and finely chop them. I'm always discouraged when a recipe calls for something to be finely chopped, because I can never get things to be that delicate and tiny. I end up with either smallish chunks or squished ingredients after too many passes with the knife. Luckily, the mushroom chunkettes shrinked with pan frying (oooh, spoiler alert). For the BLTs, it's just a matter of washing lettuce, slicing tomatoes, and rotating bread through the toaster, as I had three sandwiches to make.

The main event: The mushroom recipe called for browning the mushroom pieces (not the caps) with garlic in oil until no moisutre remained, but I found this just burned the ingredients and was near impossible. I ended up just pouring out the excess as best I could and allowing what was left to stick around. I also didn't have onion powder so I substituted finely chopped onions (that word again), throwing them in with the garlic and mushrooms. You're supposed to mix everything together in the pan, but it was much easier to stir the blob of cream cheese by transferring it all to a mixing bowl. I found that I could stuff way more mushrooms than six, and that it took much less than 20 minutes to cook. Watch 'em.

As for the bacon, I tried six pieces at a time, layered between two sheets of paper towels. Three minutes was no good, but four made them kind of tough. Crispy, but tough. I didn't know if opening the microwave worked against them, so I tried four minutes straight on the second batch of six. Still no good. But I did the final three slices at three minutes, and they were perfect. I don't know if any of this makes sense, but there you go. Three at three is the magic number.

The wrap-up: After stuffing little tasty blobs into the mushrooms and stacking my disappointing bacon, the dinner turned out fairly well - especially the mushrooms. Wow, wow, wow. Again, a recipe that I thought about the next day. And you can't go wrong with a BLT. Even though I almost did.

The final score: I hearby rename the mushrooms "Oh Wow Stuffed Mushrooms" because they were amazing - 6 out of 6 on taste, and 5 out of 6 on experience (sigh, finely chopped). The BLTs were 4 out of 6 on taste (some bacon was not so great), and 3 out of 6 on experience. Bad bacon makes me sad.

No pics, I'm sorry! I gobbled it all up, and so you will have to mosey on over to the mushroom link to check them out. Instead, I will leave you with a link to excessively large restaurant food.

The recipes:

Oh Wow Stuffed Mushrooms
From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

12 whole fresh mushrooms 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.
2.	Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.
3.	When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.
4.	Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.

BLTs

Ingredients:

Bacon

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Bread (Sourdough is awesome)

Mayonnaise

1. Place a paper towel on a microwave-safe plate or dish. Lay three slices of bacon on it. Put another paper towel on top. Cook the bacon in the microwave for three minutes.

2. In the mean time, toast the bread, wash pieces of lettuce, and cut tomatoes into thin slices.

3. Spread mayo on the bread, if desired.

4. Place the bacon, lettuce, and tomato between the bread. Enjoy!

Adventures in bridal land

This past weekend, I had the inspiration that I wanted to experience a bridal expo. I think I wanted a last big taste of the biz before I wave goodbye at our reception and cross over to a time when you can no longer gaze at wedding dresses and table number ideas without feeling a little weird. I know it's still sixish (ahhhhhhhhhhh!) weeks away, but this will all fly by, as I have been told. Anyway, my mom, Brian, and I, ventured downtown to the Phoenix Convention center to experience over 600 vendors, six fashion shows, and more people wearing "Bride!" "Groom!" "Guest!" stickers than you'd ever want to see again.

We did the environment good by taking the one-year-old light rail from Mesa to downtown, saving us the pain of trying to navigate downtown's sudden one-way streets and $12 parking. I guess the scrapbooking convention and the stamp convention were also in town, so you can imagine that we were all a rockin' bunch. We found the bridal show side of things due to the giant red drapes (because draping, I guess, is in) leading to the largest mass of wide-eyed girls you will ever see. It put me in a fit of giggles, because it was so fun and so... silly at the same time. We were immediately met by a string quartet playing "Here Comes the Bride" and various renditions of Disney love songs (the quartet was available for hire, as was just about anyone not wearing a red or green "I'm getting married/Someone I know is getting married and I got was this lousy sticker" sticker. Once they gave you a giant (I mean, this thing was at least 3 pounds) bag of fliers, you were free to wade into the masses.

Wow, I had no idea that there were so many people in the wedding business, and just in Arizona! Photographers, and videographers (there's a 3D option now) and venues, and DJs, and limo companies, and dresses, and bakeries, salons, and liposuction, and the concealed weapon advocacy group (so serious)... it's stunning. I guess there really is a steady stream of people getting married, and so there is always someone who will be willing to have her and her fiance's place shellacked onto a plate (yes, you can). It's amazing that there is this corner of our culture where deep tradition meets the need to have the newest coolest thing that "guests will all be talking about!"

I felt excited to be caught up with so many other people who were going through many of the wows and whoas that I am experiencing, but I also felt moments of, "Huh, it may be our special day, but it's about 1,000 others special days too." I'm glad that we have most things settled, I think I would have taken my complementary wedding planner and hid under it if I was approaching all of this for the first time. I was looking for possible people who offer on-location make-up services, so I did have a purpose, though it was secondary to gawking. I even managed to see a few people I knew, which makes it a small world in a large convention center.


For some reason, I only took this picture at the show.

It became sensory overload after a while, and after one too many bottlenecks at the caterers' booths (free samples!) we finished up and headed to lunch. It was fun to be in a whirlwind of people offering you prettiness and pampering, but it's also nice that time (and this bride) marches on. And I did the environment one more small favor by recycling all three pounds of fliers.


So many companies.

(PS: Unrelated - I'm a little creeped out that there has been 157 views of the photo of me at the BEA convention that I posted earlier in 2009. I found this through my Photobucket stats (photos on here used to link to my Photobucket page). Why...?).

Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Week 7 and 8

Once again, I have a double ICBC post. I felt like I should get this posted since this week was my turn for picking.

Week 7

The background: Two weeks ago we had "something pickled" as our ingredient. I briefly looked into making my own pickles, but once the "super easy" recipe started talking about sanitizing your pickling jars, I glazed over and moved on. I decided to go with a sweet relish pimento spread, since relish is pickled (but thankfully, not pickled by me. I love pimento spread from the jar, which is salmon-y pink and really not good for you. My mom grew up eating it on white bread, and my grandma would always serve it as an appetizer on celery. So, I decided to make it myself.

The Prep/The main event: I don't remember much from the preparation of this spread. I do remember thinking that it contained a lot of cheese, and that the tastiest point was when I had whipped together the cream cheese and cheddar cheese mixture. This was another one of those put-it-in-a-bowl and you're done recipes.

The wrap-up: I was pretty disappointed in the spread, but it's not entirely the spread's fault. I had forgotten how much I don't like bread and butter pickles, and sweet relish (aw, that should have told me something) tastes just like b & b pickles. Ick. So it wasn't like the tasty treat. Maybe the nostalgia makes it hard to beat, too?

The final score: For prep, 5 out of 6 (easy, but I was sad that most of these ingredients ended up just sitting in a bowl in the fridge) and for taste, 2 out of 6.

The recipe:
Tom's Sweet Pimento Cheese
From AllRecipes.com


Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 12 ounces shredded mild Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup creamy salad dressing (such as Miracle Whip®)
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 tablespoons sweet pickle juice
• 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
• 1 (4 ounce) jar chopped pimentos, drained

Directions

1. Beat the cream cheese and Cheddar cheese together with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the salad dressing, garlic salt, sugar, and pickle juice, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl. Stir in the pickle relish and pimentos. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

Week 8

The background: It was my turn! Hurray! I had been pondering my ingredient for a few weeks, trying to find something unique but used in a variety of recipes. I considered doing chocolate, with the rule that you had to make something non-dessert with it, but I figured the only real option for that is a version of mole sauce. Not a big fan of mole, surprisingly. Anyway, when we were in Vegas for Brian's marathon, I managed to find the Citrus Marketing Inc. table in the exhibit hall, sandwiched between shoe vendors and wonder goo sales people. They were pushing grapefruit and I happily grabbed all their free samples. Included was a set of grapefruit recipes and from that I decided that some fun could be had with one of my absolute favorite fruits. So, there you go. I put the Texas Citrus Salsa to the test.

The prep: Grapefruit (and oranges) are about the only fruits in season so they were easy to find. The grapefruit in the stores right now are HUGE and so amazingly tasty.


On the chopping block.

The main event: Chop, chop, chop. The steps for making the salsa were simple, but gave me a chance to work my chopping skills. Food is hard to cut into pretty, small pieces. I thought about how nice it would be to have a food processor, but then thought about how nice it was to just spend some time preparing something, beyond dumping and heating up or venting and microwaving. Sometimes, the time you save just goes to surfing the internet for another 10 minutes. I learned how to section a grapefruit, a very useful skill, I'm sure.

The wrap-up: Despite my love for grapefruit (gee, have I mentioned that?) I almost didn't want to try the salsa! Something about combining fruits with onions and salt just seemed weird. But I love mango salsa! So I took a bite and - hurray - it was great. Very satisfying and good on corn chips. A warning, though, it's medium to hot if you put in the whole jalapeno. I definitely needed water after the first bite! I recommend throwing in more tomato, too.

The final score: Cooking experience was 6 out of 6, because I put on some music and enjoyed slicing and dicing (Got a CD by Jem for Christmas and highly enjoy it. No, not the 80s cartoon.) For taste, 5 out of 6 - fabulous, though the flavor was pretty quiet. Spicy, but quiet, if that makes any sense. Brian, the salsa king, refuses to use my 6 point scale, so he says 8.75 and continues singing "Jingle Bell Rock."


*Smonch, smonch, smonch*


I am not a hand model. Please ignore the cilantro under my nails.

The recipe:

Texas Citrus Salsa
From TexaSweet

Ingredients
1 Grapefruit, sectioned and chopped
1 orange, sectioned and chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 cup of diced bell pepper
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
3 tablespoons chopped red onion
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Mix all of the above ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Drain juice before serving

The card recommends trying this over a baked potato, grilled fish, or grilled chicken. So there you go.

Unrelated pictures:


We saw Joel McHale (from The Soup and Community) for New Year's Eve. Very entertaining. He's also very, very tall.


My brother introduced my to Threadless last year and it has come to this - matching shirts. It took my parents about 10 minutes to notice as we casually talked to them in the kitchen.